Session Abstract:
Abstract: I recently switched from a Blackberry to a Motorola Google Android (aka Droid) for my
mobile device. While sitting in an airport waiting for a delayed flight I decided I would see how
much work was involved in creating a simple Android application from scratch. Turns out it only
took about 45 minutes and that included downloading the entire Android development
environment! That got me excited because I realized I could not only develop something that ran
on the Droid platform but also that it could easily communicate with RPG on IBM i using the
OpenRPGUI free and open source framework.
This session will guide you through setting up the Droid development environment on your PC.
Then we will develop a “hello world” Droid application and run it in the provided emulator – this
means you don't need to own a Droid phone to test this out! Lastly we will walk through a full
working example showing how to have the Droid phone talk to OpenRPGUI via HTTP.
Why would you want to learn how to write Droid applications? Because the Google Android
platform is fast becoming one of the most popular mobile device platforms in existence. More and
more people are using their mobile devices for things normally done from a laptop or desktop.
This means your customers or other internal employees (i.e. C-level executives) will soon start
expecting you to offer them the capability to communicate with your data through mobile devices.
Our Speaker:
Aaron Bartell is a Senior Software Developer for Krengel Technology Inc. Aaron focuses much of
his development in the area of creating modern applications using RPG and Java on the IBM i and
Android platforms. He is the lead developer of RPG-XML Suite (www.rpg-xml.com) and the
primary "pusher" of OpenRPGUI.com. He enjoys being part of the strong IBM i community
through forum participation, article writing and providing open source software on his personal
website - http://MowYourLawn.com. Aaron has most recently been pursuing how he can use his
abilities to benefit those in need. He started the site www.SofwareSavesLives.com as a
mechanism to raise money for digging clean water wells in Africa and feeding starving children.
Aaron lives with his wife and five children in southern Minnesota and enjoys playing electric and
bass guitar with the band he is in, Scattered Showers (www.ScatteredShowersMusic.com)